| Asphalt Maintenance |
| Asphalt maintenance is made to a parking lot. |
From "Trade School"
episode DTRS-307 |
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Apprentice Jeremy Nobles learns the fundamentals of asphalt paving.
In this segment, Jeremy joins a work crew to perform a routine maintenance service on an asphalt parking lot. This lot shows distinct symptoms of deterioration such as elongated cracks (figure A) and "alligator" sinkholes (figure B).1. Jeremy's first order of business is to seal the cracks branching throughout the lot. To prepare, he first blows out dust and debris from the cracks using a powerful air compressor (figure C).
2. From a truck-mounted kettle, Jeremy fills a hand-held hopper with 390 degree liquidized rubber sealant (figure D). Using the hopper, he squeezes out sealant, filling the cracks as a crewmember follows closely with a modified squeegee to ensure a flush surface (figure E).3. After filling all of the cracks, Jeremy sprays a soapy releasing agent over the sealant (figure F). The releasing agent acts to immediately solidify the rubber—readying it for traffic.
4. Jeremy shifts his attention to the "alligator" sinkholes found intermittently throughout the lot. Rather than removing the old asphalt and repaving these areas, Jeremy recycles the existing asphalt in a process called seamless infrared patching.5. For this procedure, a teammate lowers a large truck-mounted infrared heating tray into position directly over the damaged area (figure G). After 20 minutes, the smoking scorched asphalt reaches a workable temperature of 300 degrees. 6. Working quickly, Jeremy uses a construction rake to break up the hot asphalt, and then spread it evenly over the sub-grade (figure H).
7. Accessing a heated bin on the truck, Jeremy shovels asphalt into a wheelbarrow (figure I), and then dumps it over the old asphalt. In a process called luting, he spreads and levels the new asphalt with the rake (figure J). To compensate for later compaction, he makes sure that the new asphalt layer is slightly higher than the surrounding pavement.8. To compact the patch, Jeremy operates a vibratory asphalt roller. He runs the roller across both the length and width of the asphalt mix (figure K). As it compacts, water issues from jets within the roller to help cool and set the asphalt. After patching several sinkholes, Jeremy has completed the day's maintenance.
In the next segment, it's out with the old and in with the new as Jeremy removes and repaves deteriorated residential driveway.
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